KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A massive collection of documents and blueprints telling the history of Kansas City’s stockyards has been spared from the trash heap and is on display in the city’s main public library.

The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1mcYHr9 ) reports Bill Haw bought the Livestock Exchange Building in the city’s West Bottoms in 1991 and found enough documents to fill 40 to 50 refrigerator-size boxes. Eventually he donated them to the library because they were taking up too much space.

At one time Kansas City’s stockyards were the second-largest in the country, behind only Chicago. In the early 20th century as many as 20,000 local and migrant workers were employed there.

Haw gave the documents to the library in 2008, and it has taken several years to sort through all of them.